Tech Round-Up: Tablet Wars

Geek Syndicate’s very own Silver Fox takes us through the latest going ons in the tech world and the week gets off to a bang!

First, the sharks are well and truly circling Blackberry / RIM: unfathomable debts, bankruptcy rumours, new operating system BB10 & new models held back until 2013, and even unthinkable options like merging with Microsoft on the table – if Nokia is this year’s lame duck hardware maker, Blackberry may well be this or next year’s Howard The Duck…anyone want to buy a second hand Playbook?!?!
Secondly, Google announces that the next iteration of Android, named ‘Jelly-Bean’, will not support Adobe Flash Player, thus falling into line with Apple, and Steve Jobs famously saying that it was unreliable and would ultimately die. It may seem like death by 1000 cuts, but I give Flash Player around 18 months before everyone drops it. Question is, where does this leave anybody that actually thought it was any good?

And speaking of Google, have you seen Nexus 7? Built by PC-OEM, Asus, but funded by Google, at last we have a real challenger to Amazon’s Kindle Fire (still not available in the UK – grrr!), and at least, a proper tablet that really shows off what Android can do: thin, powerful (quad-core MPU), with NFC (near-field communication), face-recognition unlocking (neat-huh?) and Google Now, a Siri-style voice assistant that appears to out-perform Apple. All this at an amazing £159 when it is released next month! And Google are promising that their new portal ‘Play’ will offer a wealth of multimedia entertainment content. Check out the demo on the Beeb

And before you say, “but it’s only 7 inches” (phnarr, phnarr), Microsoft announced it’s ‘Surface’ last week, which using the long awaited Windows 8 operating system, has the potential to really put a dent in the Apple machine. The final product won’t be available until next year, and it remains to be seen if Microsoft make their own table will put Dell, H-P etc off doing the same. For a long time now, I’ve consistently said that despite Samsung, Dell, Motorola et al, nothing has truly taken the fight to the boys from Cupertino, I think 2013 really could be the “war of the machines, as long as Microsoft & Google get the all important content-shops & eco-system as sharp as iTunes or Amazon… the one thing that the Surface will offer is complete compatibility between your laptop / desktop and your tablet – and that could be a game-changer.